I don't know if anyone will ever be able to confirm if she or ABC actually had the story early but if they did then this is only a negative on her, not the network. She has enough pull that she easily could have independently broke the story or gone to another outlet and broke the story, even if it would have hurt her financially (maybe it'd break contract or something) I'd argue that if you have to choose between a couple thousand dollar fine and preventing "the most prolific pedophile ever" from further victimizing people that the right choice is ALWAYS to take the hit.

Image if one of these victims confronted her and she had to explain why she decided to condone the status quo and let however many tens or hundreds of girls continue to be raped on a daily basis for three fucking years. Imagine being a fucking reporter and refusing to do your job and break one of the most important stories of the decade because of a little red tape and chump change in fines.